Weir/Andrew to Redesign Laval for CanOpen

A computerized rendering of a proposed hole at Laval, site of a course to be created by Mike Weir and Ian Andrew.

Been sitting on this one for a while, but kudos to Lorne Rubenstein for breaking the news (that the club should have put out months ago, I’ll add) that Laval, the private club outside of Montreal, will rebuild one of its two courses with the redesign becoming the first project by Mike Weir and Ian Andrew. The club voted in favor of the move last fall, but was concerned that some members who were against the decision would go public and so Laval didn’t make any public statement.

“It’s going to happen,” Laval’s greens chairman Remi Racine, a Montreal businessman, told The Globe and Mail Tuesday. “The club voted for it last September. We are days away from signing the contract.”

The project has been in the works for some time. Weir and Andrew, who is based in Brantford, Ont., plan to build a member-friendly course that is also strong enough to test Canadian Open players, should the tournament ever come there.

“The Canadian Open is a potential but no more than that,” Racine said. The club, a 36-hole facility, hosted the 1962 Canadian Open.

That last remark is being a little coy. The plan is to have the 2017 Canadian Open at the course — at least assuming the television deal with the PGA Tour doesn’t alter the status of the Canadian Open too much and RBC stays on as sponsor. Those are big ‘ifs’ but appear likely at this point. No deal is in place between Laval and Golf Canada — but both sides are willing. Construction on the Weir course is proposed to begin this fall and be open for 2012.

Andrew has been pretty public about working with Laval. The Weir Golf Design site has a section on the work at Laval that can be found here.

Robert Thompson

A bestselling author and award-winning columnist, Robert Thompson has been writing about business and sports, and particularly golf, for almost two decades. His reporting and commentary on golf has appeared in Golf Magazine, the Globe and Mail, T&L Golf and many other media outlets. Currently Robert is a columnist with Global Golf Post, golf analyst for Global News and Shaw Communications, and Senior Writer to ScoreGolf. The Going for the Green blog was launched in 2004.